Branding – Creating a Brand Strategy For Your Business

Branding is essential to the success of your business, but how do you go about creating a brand strategy that is going to achieve the objectives that you have set and bring success?

Define Your Brand

The first thing you will need to do when creating your brand strategy is to clearly define your brand. Think about what products or services you offer, the benefits of these, the values of your business, your target market and your unique selling proposal. What do you want your target market to think of your company and how do you want them to relate to your business? After answering these questions you should be able to write a summary that defines what you want your business to look like and be, almost as if it was a real person.

Why Are You Branding?

Once you know what your brand is the next step is to understand why you are branding – what are your branding objectives? Do you want to attract more customers? Win an award? Get a greater market share? Write down exactly what you want to achieve in your branding efforts.

Understand Your Target Market

In order to achieve success in your branding efforts you need to know who you are going to be targeting. How do you achieve your branding objectives with these people? If your objective is to get more customers then how do you improve your sales to your target market? What is your target market looking for?

Do a SWOT Analysis of Your Company

Certain factors may be influencing your ability to reach your branding objectives – the competition you face in the marketplace, the demand for your product, financing, the location of your business, etc. Do a careful analysis both of your business and of the environment in which you operate to see how these affect your brand strategy.

How Do You Package Your Brand Strategy?

Your brand is reflected in all aspects of your business – your website, emails, answering service, brochures, business cards, letterheads and marketing materials. It is important to ensure that you always put across a strong brand and that each piece of packaging adds to the brand strategy you want to create. Think about how each message is put across and what it says about your company.

Creating a brand strategy is important for achieving success in your business and you should always aim for a strong, unified message that relates to your target market and achieves the branding objectives that you have set.

12 Steps to Creating a Business Online

“E-commerce”

A word pervading our society, making headlines around the

world, and causing the stock market to rise and fall with

startling ease.

It seems every business news story centers on some

technology company’s “DOT-com” or “DOT-bomb”!

With all the positive and negative hoopla, business owners

of any size company can throw up their hands and feel the

“E” world has left them behind.

Every business owner, salesperson, or professional asked one

of two questions in the past year, either “Am I using e-

commerce correctly?” or “How do I effectively get involved

in e-commerce?”

You can buy hundreds of books and pay thousands in

consulting fees to analyze and debate the answer to the

first question.

To answer to the second question just follow these 12 steps.

Step 1 – Buy a domain name (your own DOT-com). Go to

http://www.NetworkSolutions.com and research names. Can a customer

easily spell and remember it?

Step 2 – Write down your online goals and prepare a time and

money budget.

How soon do you want your e-commerce site up and running?

How much will you spend?

How many hours will you devote to the site and when?

Step 3 – Surf the web to find other sites you like and

dislike. Learn from others’ successes and mistakes by taking

the best of what their sites offer and adapting it for your

own use.

Step 4 – Design your site on paper. Define elements, look,

feel, colors etc.

Step 5 – Hire a professional to set up the graphics and

navigation, but with the intention of you or your staff

maintaining the site’s day to day operations, communication

and updates.

Step 6 – Invest in a digital camera and web publishing

software such as Microsoft Front Page or Adobe Acrobat to

keep up with the site’s maintenance.

Step 7 – Maintain, change, and update your site at least

once a month. (The one exception to this rule are those one-

page, sales letter websites. Once you have one of those that

performs well and makes sales, don’t change it!!)

Step 8 – Promote your site at every opportunity. Tell people

about it. Put your web address on your business cards and in

all your ads. Some companies even advertise their web

address when they put you on hold on the telephone.

Step 9 – Give people a self-serving reason to visit your

site. Coupon savings, discounts, special incentives, free

information, and free newsletters represent excellent

enticements for attracting visitors to your site.

Step 10 – Concentrate on obtaining an email address from

every customer and potential customer.

Obtain permission to send periodic, value-added malings to

your database.

Use a list server to organize and maintain your mailing

list.

Step 11 – Always look for and use the simplest solution or

option.

Whether adding a shopping cart, database or other option to

your e-commerce operation, seek out and use the simplest

answer for your needs.

Step 12 – Become educated and stay current in the world of

e-commerce.

Learn the marketing and sales techniques of the online

world.

Creating Presentations

When asked to give a presentation, consider using the four P’s of presentation steps to help you with your creation. The four P’s are: Plan, Prepare, Practice, and Perform. This article will address steps one and two, which are about planning and preparing the presentation.

1. During Plan, you will consider your audience and why you are giving the presentation along with what generally appeals to them and why they may want to know about your subject. You will determine with the person requesting the presentation how much time you will have and what type of visual aids may be relevant and usable at the location of final presentation. You can find some hints in the Briefing section of the book “R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizards’ Approach” that aids in development of planning questions to ask during this step such as:

  • When do I need to be there? Date of presentation with start/end times and location.
  • Who will be there? Description of primary audience and names of decision makers.
  • What will appeal to this audience and why do they want to know about this subject? Reason(s) presentation is necessary or relevant to this audience.
  • What types of supporting documents and audio/visuals are preferred by audience? Items such as projection or handouts that is preferred by or available with this audience.
  • How much of presentation time should be allowed for questions and answers at the end? Most presentations are followed by Q&A from audience to speaker and knowing the desired timeframe allows better time allotment of prepared speaking points.

2. Prepare your presentation by thinking about both the beginning and ending, and then add the detail in the middle that supports your strong start and end. Now that you know what to say and are aware of your visual aid limitation, think about how you can make the presentation memorable by developing any visuals that may accompany the presentation making sure their flow matches the presentation. When developing visuals, remember you don’t want people fumbling with handouts or noting spelling errors when they could be listening. When preparing, consider what the Presentation Plan form in the book “R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizards’ Approach” suggests as possible outline questions for a briefing presentation:

  • Why are we here? Reasons presentation is necessary or desirable at this time.
  • What have we done? History, work, or statistics related to purpose or presentation.
  • What do we plan to do? Possible future outcomes or actions as result of presentation or decision to be made based on presentation.
  • What have we learned? Summary of presentation or recommendations.
  • What have we to share? Stories, statistics, charts, or other data to prove points.
  • What do we need? Resources to facilitate presentation and discussion or to accomplish actions.

With the Plan and Prepare steps, you have learned to ask questions to help you develop speaking points and visuals aids. To understand the Practice and Perform steps, see article on “Delivering Presentations”.

Home Soap Businesses – Creating a Marketing Plan

Starting a home soap business can be fun and exciting. Yet, it is also challenging. You can only offer your soap to so many friends and family before you will need a marketing plan to get the word out to others. Here are some ways to create a marketing plan for your soap business so that you will sell so much soap that you will be amazed.

1. Create sample sized soaps to pass out for free. Then create a survey form or sheet that people can complete in order to request a sample. You want to make sure that you never give out samples without having the contact information for the person. Doing this is a complete waste of time and money.

2. Get testimonials from people who have used the soap. How did it feel on their skin? What did they like best about it? If possible, get them to give you these testimonials on video. Share these testimonials everywhere. You can include them in email newsletters, on printed marketing pieces, on Facebook, Twittter, YouTube, etc.

3. Stay focused on marketing 3-6 kinds before you start creating too many scents or kinds of soap. By staying focused on selling a few kinds successfully first, you will then be in a better position to create more later.

4. Ask your first customers to complete a brief survey telling you why they like it and what they would change out it if they could. Use their feedback to help create your marketing plan.

5. Write articles, press releases, blog posts and other content focusing on the best aspects and share them online for potential customers to read.

6. Make a list of who your ideal customers would be. What are their skin problems, health issues, etc? Then create a plan to get your marketing and product in front of them.

7. Consider passing out samples to some doctors, hospitals and other similar facilities. Let the people who work there try it themselves first so that they will be able to help you sell it.

8. Educate people about why they should buy from you instead of from the store. Know why your soap is better and what it can do for the skin and the body. Create tip sheets to share these benefits with people.

9. Use a weekly giveaway on your website and in your marketing plan to attract even more leads. People love to get something for free and this can help spread the word.

10. Seek out advice from other people who have sold similar products and include some of their advice in your marketing plan.

PIE: The Simple 3-Step Process for Creating Your Strategic Business Plan

Many business owners (especially those with a non-business background) struggle when it comes to creating a strategic business plan for their business. Chances are they’ve never ran a business before, and even in their “employment” days were not involved with the day-to-day business management.

So when it comes to running their business they struggle!

“Still need to figure out (sit down and actually learn) how to do this!” said one business owner to me earlier this week.

They have a dream for their business, are an expert in whatever it is they do, but have no idea how to take that idea/dream and turn it into a viable and profitable business… so they continue in a state of overwhelm and frustration, with a slow growing business.

Spending some time planning all of your business activities is crucial if you are to succeed long-term. It’s not just about planning your business – you need to understand the strategy behind what you’re going to be doing. And you also need to understand how all the different pieces of your business fit together to create one coherent business.

Today, I’d like to share with you my simple, 3-step process, for sitting down and crafting your own strategic business plan.

PLAN – schedule some time in your calendar to work on your business plan. Some people opt to take a mini-retreat away from their office. It could be spending the day in your local coffee shop, or actually going out of town for a few days. Or you could just schedule one or two hours and sit quietly in your office planning out your business (that advantage of doing in your office is that you have all your business information right there with you). Whatever works best for you is going to work best for your business. But the important thing is, you to schedule in the time to create your plan!

INVESTIGATE – what is it you’re going to be offering over the coming 90 days; 6 months; 12 months? I like to have a loose 12-month plan, but then have a very specific 90-day plan in place. It’s much easier to focus and implement with a shorter time-frame than it is to do so over, say, a 12-month period. Sometimes planning out so far ahead can feel overwhelming. But it is important to have that “big picture vision” in place so that you know where you’re heading.

Also when you’re deciding what it is you’re going to be offering ask yourself, “Does this make sense? Does it fit my big picture vision?” This is where understanding the strategy behind your business comes into play. It’s no good deciding you want to do a live event, or offer an online training course, if you don’t understand how this fits into your “Big Picture Vision”. All paths must lead you to that “Big Picture Vision”.

EXECUTE – now that you know what it is you’re going to be offering and when, it’s time to put that plan into practice. One thing that I do in my business is “reverse engineering”. I always start with the end date in mind and then work backwards. For example, if I’m offering a 4-part live training class on a specific date, what do I need to do to promote that training class, and when. It’s much easier to plan out the promotions if I work backwards from the start date of the class. That way too, I can see if I’m leaving enough time for the promotions or if I need to adjust something in some way.

So there you have my simple 3-step process for creating your strategic business plan. No go ahead and create your own!

(c) 2013 Tracey Lawton

7 Steps to Creating a Successful Small Business Marketing Plan

Small business marketing is all about determining the needs of your target market and then providing solutions to meet those needs.

These 7 steps are aimed at entrepreneurs starting a small business and those who want to create a successful small business marketing plan for an existing business.

Most small business promotions focus on how great their products and services are. Instead, you should educate your target market consistently and start building a relationship that will establish your credibility and trust. It is important to develop a marketing mindset. “Think Marketing” your products and services all of the time. It is very important to consistently market your products and services. Don’t fall into the trap of stop and go marketing. Some small business owners only market when sales are down.

You can’t have a successful small business without having a successful small business marketing plan. Effective small business marketing is the way to growth and profits

If you’re a small business owner or you want to know how to start a small business in the future, this simple 7-step plan will help you understand your business and your target market.

How to Start a Small Business Marketing Plan: 7 Steps

Begin the process by answering these questions:

1) Who — Who specifically is your target market? Who is your ideal client? What research can you do to find out more about your target market?

2) What — What products and services do your ideal clients want and need? What does your product and service do for your ideal client? What problems does your product solve for your customer? What are the solutions that your ideal client is looking for? What is your area of specialty that will differentiate you in the marketplace? What are the industry trends? What type of message will your ideal client likely respond to? What are you ultimately selling? For example: Are you selling eye glasses or are you selling vision? What is your unique mix of products and services? What is your pricing strategy?

3) Where — Where is your ideal client? Where is your customer located geographically? Where will you position yourself so they can easily find you? Where are the best places to get your marketing message to them? Will you speak to groups, hold seminars, or write a blog, newsletters or articles?

4) When — How frequently does your target market need to hear your marketing message? When are they most likely to buy your products and services?

5) Why — Why are you in business? Why do customers or clients buy from you? Why should they choose your product or service over your competition?

6) How — How does your customer buy your product or service? How are you going to reach potential buyers for your services and products? How will you communicate your marketing message? How will you provide customers or clients with the information they need to make their buying decision?

7) Marketing Mindset – Practice mastering a Marketing Mindset and you will be on the path to a profitable small business.

With these 7 steps, you can take action towards starting a small business marketing plan that targets new customers. “Marketing is about testing and evaluating your return on investment. But it’s primarily about helping people get what they want.” Master these small business marketing steps and you will be on the path to more profit and success as a business owner.

Creating An Original Brand Identity For Network Marketing And Direct Sales Industry Distributors

In the network marketing, MLM, and direct sales industries there is some conflicting information about how to go about establishing a personal brand in the industry.

Lets look at what a personal brand is. A personal brand is a way of attracting business to you by promoting yourself in addition to or in place of your product. In these industries people do business with individuals they like or feel they can relate to. They also do business with people who come across as having insider knowledge or leadership skills.

While I do not recommend portraying oneself in false terms to establish a powerful brand, it’s a good idea to play up your strengths. If you are just starting out, your brand should be based around the strengths you bring to your new business, not the fact that you are just starting out and haven’t made any money yet.

Portraying oneself as a strong leader does not necessarily mean posing with a sports car or even dressing up for a photograph. It means telling a story that will invite people to relate to you and be curious about your business.

The fact is – there are 100s of income opportunities on the internet these days. They are mostly marketed in very similar, and unoriginal ways. A very effective branding technique is to look at what other people are doing, and do something very different.

In this particular industry there are basically two general types of branding I see a lot.

  • The first is the “money and cars” type of brand which portrays success in the business as a pleasurable experience and encourages site visitors to imagine having nice things and a lot of money as a part of the home business experience.
  • The second is the “soft” brand. With this type of brand, often used with health and wellness MLM products, the financial rewards take a back seat to having a “feel good” product. While this type of branding is often instigated by MLM companies to build product loyalty, it often functions to conceal a weak compensation plan where few distributors make much money.

Neither of these types of branding are particularly original. I would suggest that on the internet it’s a good idea to build a brand that goes against the grain of these two types and establishes a more unique sort of image for the distributor.

This is a creative process. The secret to building a loyal following and attracting customers is building a deep brand on the internet. This sort of branding cannot be bought, it must be earned.

How is a deep brand established on the internet?

Through the written word. Distributors who wish to brand themselves but are unwilling to write web content on a regular basis will struggle to create a brand. Blogging is perhaps the most familiar form of content distribution, but getting traffic to a blog requires comprehension of how information is actually distributed on the internet – the sort of marketing knowledge that is never taught in most company-provided marketing training.

In fact, some companies in the industry actively discourage or even prohibit discussion or content marketing on the internet. My only advice is – avoid these companies like the plague.

Branding with content takes time and patience. Distributing the content effectively requires specialized knowledge of how the internet really works.

Who said building a brand is easy?



Building a brand does not have to be hard, but it does take time.

For this reason, brand-building should be piggy-backed with other marketing activity. It is unwise for an independent distributor to invest money in branding-only activity. Still, most promotional activity should be done with an eye to increasing visibility of the brand.

Creating Website Content – 5 Secrets to Create Website Content and Make Your Site Sell

The most important key you need is…

Having an understanding to why people use the internet -is the key to success…in starting your internet business.

People search the internet for one thing… relevant information -to solve their problems.

This is why the mantra “content is king” is an axiom you cannot ignore-when it comes to building your website.

When you understand this…that information is the lifeblood of the internet…you set yourself apart from your competition. Your success online is guaranteed.

When provide value for your website visitors. Your visitors will love you and trust you because you add value to their lives. The result is you become wealthy and successful because you add value to your market.

There are insider secrets to every business and these 5 secrets are very important to creating website content that makes your site sell.

Here are the five secrets you need to know….

Secret #1 Have a clear purpose for setting up your website and focus on a niche.

When you have a clear purpose for your business, creating content for your website is easy. Identifying your purpose helps you to clarify the overall content and website type-you want to build for your business. This can also be a time for setting your objectives.

Here are some common objectives for setting up website businesses… see if you can identify your own objective

  • Reputation…you may want to establish your reputation
  • Lead generation… to build a customer base
  • Product information to bring awareness to you market of your product
  • Entertainment if your business is of the entertainment type
  • Communication if you want to have an online community or membership site
  • Distribution if your website has free downloads
  • Revenue or advertising if you plan to build a legacy site and generate revenue from cost per click advertising
  • Revenue from products if you are going to sell digital products

Whatever your objectives you are better off -clarifying your purpose- before you start creating content for your website.

I call this back-to-future planning. Stephen Covey bestselling author, “seven habits of highly effective people” calls this” beginning with the end in mind”.

Secret#2 Make Your content entertaining and interactive.

When you make your content entertaining and interactive, you make your website stick.

Stick-ability is the key to having a quality website. Studies have shown that the average website visitor spends no more than 2 minutes. And visitors “stick” or stay longer when the content of a website is compelling enough to solve their problems.

Bob Bly, bestselling author and copywriter talks about the bar stool test as a yardstick- to producing engaging content- for your website.

The bar stool test is measured by comparing your content to having a conversation with a friend in a bar.

If your written content will not engage a friend or visitor in a bar or informally, then the possibility of having an engaging content is low.

Another way to see if your content is engaging is to read your written content aloud. See if your written word sounds right in your ears or to a second person. If your content does not sound right to you then you need to revise your content.

Bottom-line you provide valuable content when the content you provide is entertaining, holds the attention of your website visitors. And they come back to read more content on your website

Secret# 3. Provide informative, current, and up-to-date content about what is happening in your niche.

There is a saying amongst stock market traders, “the trend is your friend”. Trends refer to changes in the market place. Political economic or cultural issues could change market behavior.

Your business must be aware of the trends in your target market so you can tailor your website to cater for your customers. By keeping yourself up to date on happenings in your market…you can constantly update your website content to provide solutions and adjust your product offering to your market place.

You also communicate to your customer you care about them.

Secret#4. Give free valuable information in exchange for relationship with your prospects.

The commonest mistake internet entrepreneurs and even well-established companies make is…to think of only making sales to the customer.

This is counter intuitive to how the internet works.Most contact on the internet starts with web surfers looking for information.

You build your credibility when you give visitors valuable information free. Now there should be a distinction between what is free and what you want them to pay for.

Nevertheless, you are going to rate better as being helpful because you gave your customers free valuable information… and they will come back to you again. When you create an opportunity for ongoing contact with your prospect, you increase your chances of selling to the customer

Secret# 5. Seek to build relationship with your content

When your website provides-valuable content. You create opportunity to build relationship with your prospects. You can convert prospects to paying customers.

The key to building relationship with your market is to get them interacting with your content.

The best way to do this is to create a space on your website for comments, feedback. You could set up a forum or online community. One of the best ways to grow your business online is to use the apple model-get your customer to become advocates for your business.

You can only achieve this status when you become the go-to-business to solve the problems in your niche.

The bottom line……

The internet is going to keep on growing and the competition is going to be fierce, customers are going to get more sophisticated.

The good news is you can still tap into the rich opportunities in the coming years.

You can achieve this by providing valuable content that is entertaining, interactive and uplifts your customers. And this still bores down to the axiom-content is king!

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